SBS and ESPN have become the new home of basketball with a two-year deal to broadcast NBL games being announced today.
The deal will also include televising the upcoming international games between Australia, US, Canada and New Zealand and SBS plans to broadcast the 2019-20 NBA season within this agreement also.
SBS will broadcast every game of the 2019-20 Hungry Jack’s NBL season for free on it’s VICELAND channel and SBS On Demand streaming platform. 67 of those games to be shown live on VICELAND which will deliver a 86% increase compared to last seasons broadcast on channel Nine.
In a world where there is more competition for the eyes and ears of Australian’s the decision by SBS to invest to broadcasting basketball shows how much basketball has grown in recent years.
“SBS has a strong heritage of championing sports Australia’s diverse communities are passionate about, and we are thrilled to be partnering with the NBL to become the exclusive free-to-air home of Australian basketball, offering more free coverage than ever before, and in HD” said SBS Managing Director James Taylor.
The ability for the NBL to secure this deal at a time where PlayStation’s, Xbox’s and Netflix have acquired more of the countries attention shows how strong it has grown as a product over the past five years.
No other sport in Australia is growing at such a rapid rate and with Boomers success almost certain at next months FIBA World Cup and the 2020 Olympics the country is set to embrace basketball like never before.
“With around one million Australians playing basketball, it’s one of the nation’s leading team sports for participation and we look forward to bringing fans every memorable minute of one of the country’s fastest-growing leagues.” said Taylor
As more people shift to steaming services and television companies rein in their spending asa result of increased production costs, ratings decline and poor advertising revenue the NBL has developed itself into a highly attractive product.
Basketball now prepares to capitalise on a boom period like never before with this additional coverage also aligning with the government committing to build over the next three years this decade we will see more people playing and watching the sport than anytime in Australia’s history.
“This broadcast agreement is a huge leap forward in the coverage of the NBL and basketball across Australia. It maintains our commitment to make the game available to more people to watch when and how they choose across different platforms and will continue to grow our audience across Australia.” NBL owner and executive chairman Larry Kestleman said.
The success of Australians in the NBA and the growth of the NBL in Australia thanks to Larry Kestleman has seen interest in the sport reach new heights in Australia at a time where contact sports like NRL are losing momentum due to things like concussion research and traditional sports like AFL and Cricket are plateauing due to an inability to attract new fans, like the steady influx of immigrating Australian’s who are more familiar with world sports like basketball and soccer.
Data collected from Google Trends on search for AFL and cricket over the past 5 years
The growth of basketball compared to other major sports in Australia means basketball is no longer a niche sport and one which major media companies like SBS and ESPN are now taking notice of.
Data collected from Google Trends on search for NBL and NBA over the past 5 years
The NBL partnership between SBS and ESPN also means that the league has succeeded in getting more games on free-to-air television at the most accessible times as well as reducing the number of times which NBA games are broadcast at the same time as NBL games. Removing the competition of NBL vs NBA will also drive greater engagement from basketball fans.
ESPN Australia-New Zealand general manager Haydn Arndt said NBL fit well alongside the NBA, WNBA and college basketball on his channel.
“ESPN is the indisputable home for basketball fans in Australia so it makes perfect sense to add the NBL alongside our exclusive television coverage of the NBA, WNBA and NCAA basketball,” Arndt said.
SBS Viceland will show a 5.30pm game every Saturday then show 3pm and 5.30pm games each Sunday while ESPN will screen all night games after 7.30pm. All games will be live and in high definition.
The NBL finals series will be simulcast live on both SBS Viceland and ESPN.